2024 May Update - June 4th, 2024

Championship Races Munster Senior and Masters T&F:
On the championship trail we had a solid Munster Senior and Masters T&F in Templemore in May. Paul won silver in the senior (and U23) 1500m in 3.57. John also won siler in the 3000m S/C (Sen and U23) in 11.18. Frank took the bronze in the 400m in 51.90 seconds. In the Masters races Donal was 2nd overall in the race and first M40 in 9.43, Stephen took 2nd M40 in a time of 10.10. Well done all

Frank was also racing in the University National T&F in the UK in May and reached the semi final after winning his heat in 1.56 in the 800m. He improved to 1.52 in the semi final but just missed out in the final by 1 position after having a storming finish.

Other Road Races - Top 10's:
There were plenty of other road races on, the biggest result of the month was Michael winning the Midleton 5 in 25.30, Tony was 2nd in 25.54 and Nicky also getting in the top 10 with a good comeback race in 26.47. Tamzin was 5th in the ladies in 31.50 with Annelise also cracking the top 10 in 33.14. James had a trip to the beach for himself over the border to Ardmore and was 6th in the Ardmore 5 Mile in 26.49.

All the other results are below as well. Congrats to any PB's and and personal duels won.

Wicklow Way Relay:

Well done to everyone who participated and helped out to retain our Wicklow Way crown. On the 21st anniversary, it was another monumental effort to get 8 people fit to the start line and all acquitted themselves admirably.

Graham had the selectors worried earlier on in the year but put all doubts aside in Ballynoe and backed up that performance with a cracker of a leg 1, breaking the 60 min barrier in 59.37 and importantly also handing it over to Tony in 1st place with a slender 12 second lead, a lead we did not relinquish. Tony an experienced mountain runner with some impressive wins in the past year or two was our trump card for 2024 and he did not disappoint running an extemely strong 62.23. Unfortunatly Tony's Strava did not upload after the race.

Annelise was on leg 3 with a point to prove and she certainly did running a great 40.14 and passing to Donal at Oldbridge with a 42 second lead on fierce rivals Rathfarnham AC. Donal, a little uncertain what to do at the front of a race, put his head down and powered up the steep hills at the start of his leg and decended well throught he tricky single track forest section to run 40.44 and pass to Kevin in Glendalough with the specter of "Matt 2023" hovering over him. After a bit of a wardrobe malfunction Kevin got to work on leg 5 and ran a solid 57.21 (and importantly banished the pesky specter once and for all).

In Glenmalure Kevin tagged Nicky, whose baton changeover was inspired from Irelands recent success at the World Relay championships, still in first place but only 1.10 up on Rathfarnham. Nicky's 5 star preparation turned into a 5 star performance with a gutsy run in 57.03 to increase our lead out to 5 minutes and pass over to Tim in Ironbridge for leg 7. Tim produced an improved performance on last year and opened up a another 12 minutes on 2nd with a 74.09 for the 20km route (with 600m of climbing). TT Racers had slipped into 2nd at this point after Rathfarnham took a wrong turn on this long leg and ran an extra 1km or so.

Tamzin was well warmed up after leap frogging through the legs for the day and knew what was ahead of her. Annelise had filled her in on the finer points of leg 8 on the trip up in the car too. Tamzin showed her good form again and ran a very impressive 43.01 for the hilly 10k route. She crossed the line in Shilleagh village at 2.14pm giving us an overall time of 7.14.

Thanks to everyone else who helped out behind the scenes and on the day, Lavinia, Zack, Ava, Lorna, Eadaoin, Fiona, Kenneth and Matt. And while not strictly a pure athletics event it is one of the great team events each year that brings the club together with a common purpose to to round it off with a win is a bonus.

All Ireland Schools:
Special mention to Mathew Mahony was ran a really well run race in the Junior Boys 1500m in Tullamore as well to come second in a PB of 4.16. Mathew was not afraid to take the race to the field and let loose with 500m to go and showed great strength and composure to hold onto second with a fast charging pack in the home straight bearing down on him.